Cain and Jordan

News flash: Herman Cain is still a presidential candidate.

Yes, the former pizzeria chain CEO stopped his campaign over charges of an extramarital affair, but if you listened closely he said he was "suspending" his campaign. Suspending your campaign means you've temporarily halted your run for office so you figure out how or whether to go forward. Ending your campaign is withdrawing from the campaign and not going forward at all. Gary Hart, when he was faced with charges of an extramarital affair as his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination was gearing up in May 1987, suspended his run for the White House on May 7; he then ended his campaign on May 8. (He did re-enter the race seven months later, but that's a different issue.)

So Cain is still assessing his viability as a presidential candidate. The joke is that everyone else has assessed it for him.

Meanwhile, Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and a leading rightie, expressed pleasure with the fact that President Obama opposes any attempt to attach a rider authorizing an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas on a payroll tax cut extension bill.

"Frankly, Jordan said, "the fact that the president doesn't like it makes me like it even more."

Miracle of miracles! A Republican comes clean! He admits that he supports a bad idea just because the President opposes it!

Jordan is no stranger to expressing his opposition to policies without a lot of rationalized B.S. He also opposes high-speed rail, and remember, he came right out and said it was because he didn't want to see intercity passenger rail to compete with the business of selling cars - not because of wasteful government spending or any crap like that.

So we have one Republican who can't not be a candidate and another who can't not tell the truth. Yeah, those are double negatives. So are Cain and Jordan.